Hello, this is Priyanka Salve writing from Singapore.
Welcome to the latest edition of Inside India. A one-stop destination for stories and developments in the world’s fastest growing large economy.
India’s 15-minute delivery boom is reshaping one of the world’s fastest-growing e-commerce markets. The service is expected to account for nearly 40% of the country’s online retail sales by 2030, and while it is currently led by local companies, Amazon and Walmart-owned Flipkart are taking on the challenge aggressively. The stakes extend beyond growth and they struggle to maintain their presence in a market where consumer expectations are being redefined.
Do you have any thoughts about today’s newsletter? Share them with the team.
India’s 15-minute delivery, or quick commerce, company has accomplished something amazing: disrupting the biggest disruptor. But the battle is not over yet.
Amazon and walmartFlipkart, the e-commerce giant that once ended the dominance of brick-and-mortar stores in India, was late to enter the quick commerce space, but is now aggressively challenging incumbents in the space.
E-commerce companies are not just chasing market share with new formats, they need to offer agile commerce services to stay relevant to consumers, experts told CNBC, adding that India is a key long-term growth market and needs to take advantage of changing consumption habits.
So when Amazon CEO Andy Jassy visited India last week, quick commerce was certainly a focus.
On June 24, Jassi visited a micro-fulfillment center in Mumbai and said in a post on X that the global e-commerce giant has ambitions to become India’s largest “delivery network within minutes.”
Amazon Now in India is offering up to 25% cashback on the first five orders on the app and waiving platform fees and shipping fees to speed up customer onboarding and drive adoption of the service.
The US company plans to offer its Amazon Now service in over 300 cities, while Blinkit is a leading quick commerce company in India, with over 2,200 dark stores in over 200 cities as of March 2026.
Another challenger, Flipkart, also announced last week that its quick-service service Minutes has more than 1,000 micro-fulfillment centers in more than 130 cities.
“For Amazon and Flipkart, this is not just about entering another retail format, but making sure they remain relevant even as instant fulfillment becomes the preferred mode of e-commerce,” Aakash Agrawal, associate director at Anand Rati Investment Banking, told CNBC.
A Swiggy Ltd. employee prepares an order inside the company’s dark store on Thursday, October 24, 2024 in Mumbai, India.
Bloomberg | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Quick commerce is a post-pandemic phenomenon in India that started with delivery of fresh produce and fast-moving consumer goods within 15 minutes, but has gradually expanded to include smartphones, small electronics and appliances, beauty products, pharmacies, and more.
Consumer habits have been rewired to prioritize delivery of online products within minutes instead of days. Something like a food delivery company and Zepto, a startup often credited with being the first to launch quick commerce in 2021, was one of the first to scale up in this space in India with a local logistics network.
Experts say the most frequently ordered items on quick commerce platforms are fresh produce, household staples and consumer goods, but small electronics, kitchen appliances and travel goods are also popular on Amazon, Flipkart and more established rivals.
Amazon is also establishing 100 urban fulfillment centers to fill fast-track commercial orders, stocking apparel, electronics, jewelry, shoes, luggage, watches, wireless accessories, musical instruments, furniture and more.
According to an April report from Bain & Company, India is a “world leader” in quick commerce adoption, with nearly 17% of total e-commerce product value flowing through these platforms.
The quick commerce opportunity in India is expected to reach $65 billion to $70 billion by 2030, six times more than in 2025, the report said, adding that it will account for up to 40% of total online retail sales (by volume) and almost half of incremental sales.
Both Amazon and Flipkart are already experiencing a frenzy of quick commerce adoption in India and are expected to take market share from weaker financial competitors, experts said.
“Prime members shopped three times more often when they started using[Amazon Now]and orders have doubled every quarter since launch,” Jassy said in the post, adding that QuickCommerce is now the company’s “fastest growing e-commerce segment in India.”
A Flipkart spokesperson told CNBC that the e-commerce company is seeing rapid adoption of quick commerce outside metropolitan areas, with Gen Z representing 40% of its customer base and its “fastest growing generation.”
Experts added that with the entry of Flipkart and Amazon, the quick commerce market will become more competitive and will eventually shrink to two to three players in the next few years as the cash burn ends.
Eternal’s quick commerce platform, Blinkit, is the only quick commerce company to prove profitability at the operating level over the past two quarters. The company reported adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization of 370 million rupees ($3.8 million) in the March quarter, compared with 40 million rupees in the previous quarter.
“Our view is that Brinkit will definitely be one of those two or three players,” Aditya Soman, senior research analyst at CLSA India, told CNBC’s Inside India on Tuesday.
But the quick commerce race remains wide open for two more winners.
need to know
Amazon adds new funding, boosts India’s AI and cloud investment to $48 billion
Amazon plans to invest an additional $13 billion in expanding its artificial intelligence and cloud infrastructure in India, bringing its total investment in India to $48 billion from 2026 to 2030. These funds will be used to expand the capacity of AWS data centers in Mumbai and Hyderabad.
One of India’s largest gold exporters was paying its managing director just $180 a month, an investigation reveals.
Indian authorities have found multiple accounting and operational irregularities at Rajesh Exports Ltd., one of the country’s largest gold companies, according to findings released on Wednesday, weeks after market regulators raised concerns about the company’s reported profits.
very soon
July 1st to 3rd: Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi visits India.
July 3: HSBC composite final PMI for June.
